Ceremonies will be held in the remote northwestern city and elsewhere across the nation to mark one of the 20th century's greatest military engagements, but one which cost the lives of around 10,000 Vietnamese.

Foreign ministry spokesman Le Dung said the country would have the opportunity "to recall its glorious past and the precious and historic lessons of the fight for national liberation, independence and freedom".

The battle of Dien Bien Phu began on March 13, 1954, but it was not until May 7 that shell-shocked survivors of the French garrison hoisted the white flag, effectively signalling the end of France's rule in Vietnam.

Victory led to the signing of the Geneva Accords on July 21, 1954 that split the country into North Vietnam and South Vietnam. It took another 21 years, however, to achieve the reunification of the war-scarred nation.

Senior members of the ruling Communist Party as well as guests from China and Laos, Vietnam's two communist neighbours, will attend Friday's celebrations at Dien Bien Phu, 500 kilometres (310 miles) northwest of Hanoi.

There, the deputy head of the French embassy in Vietnam, Eric Berti, is expected to lay a wreath at a memorial to the 3,000 troops under French command who died or disappeared during the bloody 56-day battle.

Ahead of Friday's anniversary, Vietnam's top leaders Wednesday met diplomats for a formal state ceremony in the presence of Vo Nguyen Giap, the legendary general who masterminded the Dien Bien Phu campaign.

President Tran Duc Luong told the audience that the victory "highlighted the truth of Marxism-Leninism and Ho Chi Minh's ideology," and showed that any country, no matter how small or undeveloped, could defeat a powerful oppressor.

Significantly, the French ambassador to Vietnam was not present, choosing instead to attend a memorial service in Paris. Hanoi had made it plain that the anniversary week would be a celebratory event rather than an occasion for both sides to honour their dead.

For the Communist Party, the battle is a key tool in its efforts to assert its legitimacy amid growing disillusionment amongst the population over rampant corruption within its ranks.

"The regime relies on the glories of nationalism past to shore up its legitimacy," said Carl Thayer, a Vietnam expert at the Australian Defence Force Academy.

After World War II, France was able to reinstall its colonial government in what was then known as Indochina.

But from 1945, it faced a challenge for control of the north from the Vietnamese independence movement, known as the Viet Minh and led by Ho Chi Minh, the founding father of the Vietnamese Communist Party.

Struggling to counter their classic guerrilla warfare tactics, French military commanders in late 1953 picked Dien Bien Phu near the Lao border as the place to decisively engage the peasant army in a conventional battle.

The French built up their garrison, located in a sweeping, river valley, and by March 1954 around 10,000 troops were in position, their numbers eventually swelling to 15,000.

However as the build-up got underway, some 50,000 Viet Minh troops under the Giap's leadership surrounded Dien Bien Phu, and on March 13 they launched their bloody assault.

"Dien Bien Phu was not only a victory of the Vietnamese people but for many other countries around the world," Giap told reporters last week.

"It proved that a nation with enough determination can win against foreign aggressors no matter powerful they are," added the revered 92-year-old.

All rights reserved. Copyright 2003 Agence France-Presse. Sections of the information displayed on this page (dispatches, photographs, logos) are protected by intellectual property rights owned by Agence France-Presse. As a consequence, you may not copy, reproduce, modify, transmit, publish, display or in any way commercially exploit any of the content of this section without the prior written consent of Agence France-Presse.

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